Armed Forces Day: Memorable B-Town Characters!

"Sandese aate hain, humein tadpaate hai, to chitthi aati hai, to poochh jaati hai, ke ghar kab aaoge, ke ghar kab aaoge, likho kab aaoge, ki tum bin ye ghar soona soona hai"

Bringing to you first is none other than the King Khan, Shah Rukh Khan. Seeing him as a cute romantic lover boy and even as a caring and loving husband is the usual for every female watching his movies. But this epitome of a talented actor has even made us awe with his incredible performance as an army officer in Main Hoon Na as Major Ram Prasad Sharma who disguises himself into a student for a special mission and ends up being the protector of General Bakshi's daughter, Sanjana, played by Amrita Rao. In the 2012 release Jab Tak Hai Jaan, SRK was seen as Major Samar Anand, who walks around the city diffusing dangerous and risky bombs. The angry, unforgiving and anguished Samar has numerous variations in his character sketch and SRK pulls off the role with ease. Veer Zaara being the best of all, had him playing the role of Squadron Leader Veer Pratap Singer, working in the rescue squad. Though the film was a love saga, he met his lady love Zaara through a rescue operation and this unfolds the rest of the story.
The film Lakshya showcases various missions carried out by the Indian army lead by the brave Karan Shergill, played by Hrithik Roshan. This is the role that shows Karan transform from a carefree, aimless young man to a responsible young army officer. Also starring Amitabh Bachchan as Col. Sunil Damle, it is the brilliant performance by Hrithik and his character arc progression that makes this movie a must watch. How can Shahid Kapoor's shot in the air-force uniform with that mustache be forgotten when we make this particular list? Everybody who has watched 2011 movie Mausam will never forget the uniform of the fighter-plane sequences shown in the film. Mausam would have been a love story of Harry (played by Shahid Kapoor) and Aayat (played by Sonam Kapoor) but a major high point of when both get separated due to Harry's duty as a Squadron Leader leave the film going on a detour. Though just a few shots, Shahid has surely done justice to his role and we loved him in that uniform. Don't you think he should try more of such roles?
Moving on, we have with us the Singham of Bollywood, Ajay Devgn. He has tickled our funny bones with his amazing comedy series Golmaal but won our hearts with his role of the never-fearing police officer Singham. However, before all this, he has played two significant army roles which we feel should be a part of this list. The first is the 2003 film Zameen where he was seen as the fearless Col. Ranvir Singh Ranawat. The movie shows his struggle along with ACP Jaidev Malhotra played by Abhishek Bachchan to free a hijacked plane carrying 107 passengers including Jaidev's wife Nandini. Another role played by Ajay Devgn was in the movie Tango Charlie which might not have clicked with the audience but Ajay as Havaldar Mohammed Ali in the Border Security Force was a significant character of the film.

Now comes the film we took our initial song from, Border. This was a multi-starrer patriotic film which showcased the true struggle, feelings and life of soldiers standing on guard on the border. This movie was a true tribute to those who died in the name of the country and starred some amazing actors such as Sunny Deol, Jackie Shroff, Suniel Shetty, Akshay Khanna who played responsible and dutiful army officers. It is said that the film was inspired by true events that took place during the battles of Longewala fought in Rajasthan. These four actors had back-to-back performances in the movie, along with the mind-capturing and touching soundtrack of "Sandese Aate Hai" amidst. Bringing our list to its logical conclusion, 2003 film LOC Kargil cannot be missed. This is yet another multi-starrer film consisting of an incredibly large star cast including big names such as Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn, Suniel Shetty, Saif Ali Khan, Sanjay Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan, Akshay Khanna, Manoj Bajpai, Raj Babbar, Mohnish Behl, Sudesh Berry, Avtar Gill, Milind Gunaji, Kiran Kumar, Bikram Saluja, Ashish Vidyarthi and Mukesh Tiwari. The film was loosely based on the 1999 Kargil war and depicted the incidents that occurred before, during and after the war. This army based film was received positively by the viewers, indicating that the actors were given their due credit for their amazing performances.
Author: Siona M.
Editor (s): Saraa K. & Jenifer Y.
Graphics: Saraa K.